Pretend like...

sweet face

*twirling in circles singing the sound of music while smiling and laughing*

This was how I felt after my ride last night.  Just happy!  I haven't ridden since the weekend because the monthly process I'm sorta kinda the lead on at work went to warp speed (happens every month; hell, you could call it "that time of the month" for me, because that's when I'm cranky as shit).  It's hard to get in a workout, let alone see my pony.

I have, however, been reading two of my Jane Savoie books, and it gave me some great ideas for my ride:


1. Issue 1 to deal with - when I ride around other riders, especially dressage riders, I tend to become insecure and for lack of a better word, I choke.  I get so uncomfortable that they're watching me, judging me, thinking I'm a terrible horse person that I wind up riding like an asshole.  Well, Jane has a whoooole section on that.  And it basically goes like this:
1. Say to yourself "I love riding with other riders in the arena!"
2. Say to yourself "I'm so good at (whatever you think your bad at)"
1. in my case I say to myself "I'm so good at sharing the arena, and I'm a very balanced, centered rider with quiet hands"
3. If these two positive brain-washing techniques don't work, literally pretend to be someone else.

So I decided - screw it!  I'll do all three.  I pretended I was my trainer, Glenda.  Oftentimes I catch myself saying "why can't I ride like her; she's so calm and decisive, etc, etc.".  So I was her.  I was calm.  I was decisive.  And since I was Glenda, I also was much more balanced (naturally...) and didn't mind sharing the ring.  It was strangely liberating, and really worked for me.

The second idea for the night, was one of a more practical nature - getting Gavin very light on my aids. Now, he is pretty light already between transitions, but at the walk and canter he tends to bog down after about 3 or 4 strides and then I have to urge him on again.  Well, this is no bueno.  And for ever and ever I've been on auto pilot about asking too much for forward motion.  So tonight we worked on responsiveness to aids, and also staying in the gear I put him in.  This required a couple of swift "corrections", but after that he marched along like nothing could stop him.

More apples PLEEEEASE!

I did more walk breaks then usual, mostly because I get so focused on trot/canter work that I forget and I'm pretty sure I don't give Gavin enough walk breaks on the regular.  Trying to be more concientious of my little guy.

Anyways - the ride was awesome.  He did awesome.  Sure, we didn't ride with any dressage riders, but we did share the ring with two little girls taking lessons - and they looked pretty damn impressed (I like to think).  ;)

post-workout roll